


baiser de l'effroi

by RodeRozen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Death, M/M, Poetry, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:01:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26532523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RodeRozen/pseuds/RodeRozen
Summary: Dread turned to despair. It brushed against his lips.A promise.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Harry Potter/Voldemort
Kudos: 16





	baiser de l'effroi

Dread crept over his spine as he walked Hogwarts’s halls. It tickled him, ghosting over his neck and softly kissing his lips.

Harry shuddered. The feeling faithfully accompanied him all the way up to the Headmaster’s office. He paid it no more mind, too used to it after the last couple of days.

(He woke up with it and went to sleep with it.)

The dread was always there, and it grew every day he didn’t hear from Voldemort. Something wasn’t right, and Harry dreaded what it could be.

Raising a hand, he knocked on the door to Dumbledore’s office.

(The dread curled around his heart, and stayed there.)

“Come in,” Dumbledore called.

Harry gritted his teeth, pushing open the door and taking a step forward.

He froze, assaulted by an overwhelming wrongness.

(His fingers trembled ever so slightly, longing to squeeze the old man’s neck.)

It was his magic which had alerted him. He could feel Voldemort everywhere.

(The dread constricted around his heart.)

“You asked for me, Headmaster?” Harry inquired, tilting his head slightly.

Dumbledore pressed the tips of his fingers together, weaving them in and out of each other.

(Perhaps he thought it made him look wise.)

“Yes, my boy. I have very good news.”

Harry gritted his teeth.

(The dread nearly made him choke on the words coming out of his throat.)

“What is it, Headmaster? Have you found another Horcrux?” he simpered, though he knew that couldn’t be it.  
As soon as Dumbledore had started showing Harry memories related to the Horcruxes, he had alerted Voldemort, who had gathered and secured them.  
Dumbledore spoke slowly, as if piecing the words together while saying them.  
“Alas, no. However, finding them should be quite simple now. You see, Harry, I have managed to capture Voldemort himself.”

(The world stopped.  
Harry struggled to contain his magic. It wanted to seep out of his pores, come thundering through his mouth.  
He wrestled it all back. Everything depended on him.)

“That’s…amazing news, sir! How…how did you do it?”

(And how could they make sure it never happened again?)

Dumbledore chuckled. 

(It was probably meant to sound genial.)

“Ah, I merely advertised you and I would be at a press conference this morning. He, of course, could not resist the bait.”

Harry took a deep breath.

(No, Voldemort would not have been able to resist that.  
It would have been a betrayal on Harry’s part.  
He wished Voldemort had simply checked with him.)

“That’s brilliant, sir! But…I don’t really have to go to a press conference, do I?”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled.

(Did he use a charm for that?)

“Of course not, my boy. However, I am afraid I must ask you to undertake an even more dangerous mission.”

(Even more dangerous than a press conference?)

“I’m ready, sir. Whatever it is, I’ll do it,” Harry eagerly said.

(Perhaps it would lead him to Voldemort.)

“I’m glad to hear it,” Dumbledore said. He pulled out a glass cube. Though the outsides of it were translucent, the insides were not visible.

(His lunch tried to work its way up to his mouth.)

He knew that kind of cube. It was a prison in magical space.

(It was nearly impossible to break out of.)

“This, Harry, is where I have placed Voldemort. According to the Prophecy, it must be you who defeats him. I can place you in the cube along with him, but once you are in, I cannot see or help you. Voldemort should be severely weakened already. Good luck, my boy.”

A magical prison drained the magic of the prisoner. Would Voldemort even be alive?

(Magic, soul. One and the same.)

(The Horcruxes would start to fray.)

“After- after, Sir, how can I get out?”

(You couldn’t. Dumbledore knew this.)

“Don’t worry about that, my boy. Focus on your task.

(He would focus.  
But not on Dumbledore’s task.)

Harry nodded, doing his best to seem determined.

(Instead of desperate.)  
(Dread turned to despair. It brushed against his lips.  
A promise.)

Dumbledore waved his wand.

(Something flashed in his eyes.)

The cube sucked Harry inside.

(He fell.)

On impact, the ground seemed to give way for just a moment.

(A leech attached itself to his core.)  
(Despair parted his lips and pushed its tongue inside.  
A reminder.)

Voldemort laid on the ground, unconscious.

(His arms at a ninety-degree angle in the wrong direction.)

A sob escaped Harry’s throat.

(He tried to fish his courage out of his shoes.)

“Vol?”

No response.

On shaking legs, Harry kneeled next to him.

(The leech eagerly feasted on his core.)

He placed his hand on Vol’s neck.

He waited.

(One, two, three heartbeats.  
His own.)

It was a ruse. Dumbledore knew.  
They’d lost.

Softly, Harry pushed Vol’s eyelids down.  
They didn’t move.

(Who knew how long he’d been here?)  
(The leech had almost drank everything he had.)

He slumped forward, head resting atop Vol’s still heart.

Blackness flickered before his eyes.  
Specks of light grew fainter and fainter.

“Voldemort,” he rasped. An apology. A goodbye.

(Vol de mort. Flight from Death.  
But It comes for its children.)

The light floated away.  
He started floating upward.

(Despair lingered in his breath.  
An ending.)


End file.
